


JJ's Mistake

by ShimmeringDarkness



Series: Criminal Minds Love [2]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Genital Piercing, Piercings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:40:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24600979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShimmeringDarkness/pseuds/ShimmeringDarkness
Summary: JJ has a little problem that she tries, and fails, to hide from out favorite profilers. Emily helps her fix her awkward problem.
Series: Criminal Minds Love [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1755139
Kudos: 18





	JJ's Mistake

The plane was lifting off the tarmac in Salt Lake City and the team was in for a long 4 hour flight back to DC. The case had been, in the grand scheme of the cases the BAU worked, not that bad. A man was kidnapping women as forcible mothers for his son after his had been murdered. Overall it really hadn’t been that bad, odd? Yes. But likely to take up even more space in their subconscious as nightmares? No.

JJ had been acting shifty the whole case, no one had any clue what was up with her. She had taken the Monday before the case off to get together with girlfriends from college, and had come in Tuesday slightly tired but regaling fun tales of partying and catching up and getting drunk. Ever since Will had up and left her with Henry and no more than a note saying he wasn’t cut to be a father and was going back to New Orleans, they’d all been sad to see JJ growing serious and more somber, and not enjoying their nights out as much and withdrawing from the oddball family they created. 

As the pseudo dads of the group, both Hotch and Rossi had tried talking to her to see she deserved better than him and to not worry about him. Spencer had tried talking to her as her little brother, insulting Will in his own special way, and Emily, Morgan, and Penelope had tried taking her out and being the crazy rambunctious siblings she normally loved, but even then had been withdrawing from slightly. After those few months of her acting down like that, they were happy to see her acting happier and more upbeat. But throughout the three day case, she hadn’t returned to her depressed state but she was acting very odd and shifty. She’d been avoiding eye contact with all the team, pacing or standing up almost constantly and seeming to be shifting uncomfortably every few seconds when she did sit down. They were getting concerned and had all approached Hotch about if she was okay, but he’d been just as concerned as them, simply telling them to not worry about it until the case was over. 

As soon as the case was over though, which was quickly because they’d chosen to fly back right away as they closed and arrested the unsub at noon, all bets were off, especially as her uncomfortable and suspicious twitching continued as she had to be seated for takeoff. The second the captain had cleared them to move around, she was back up, unaware of the looks she was drawing from the team. She walked back to the galley to get a mug of coffee casually before returning to the main cabin area, and leaning on the wall next to one of the sofa’s rather than sitting back down. 

The whole team exchanged glances and after a few meaningful stares at Hotch he said “JJ? Everything okay?”

JJ looked shocked at being addressed, having been distracted scrolling through something on her phone. “What? Oh, yes of course, great.”

She shifted her stance uneasily against the wall and Derek said “You sure? You look uncomfortable?”

JJ blushed fiercely, an unexpected reaction to the profilers and she shook her head “Oh yeah, all good, just stretching my legs, getting some coffee, no big deal.”

The whole team looked suspiciously at her and she groaned “Jesus, cut the profiling, I said I’m fine, what happened to the no interteam profiling? I. Am. Fine.”

Emily rolled her eyes, “So you’ve been stretching your legs constantly for the last 3 days ever since we got on the plane?”

JJ blushed bright red again as she hesitated just barely and said “Just nervous energy I guess.”

Hotch locked his eyes on hers, “JJ, come here.”

She took a wobbly hesitant step forward but walked to the other edge of the cabin leaning on the wall next to him and said “Yes?”

He pointed to the seat in front of him “Sit.”

She winced minisculely at the thought but said “If it’s all the same I’d rather stand, my legs, you know.”

Hotch sighed “Look Jay, our team, we’re a family.”

“I agree… I trust all of you more than practically any of my family in Pennsylvania, care about you just as much as my little brother, but I fail to see what that has to do with anything right now Hotch?”

“You’ve been upset and isolating yourself since Will left. You went on this college girls reunion day and came back full of happy stories and in your normal mood. Within 5 hours that changed and you’ve been shifty and uncomfortable and nervous this entire case, barely sitting down for more than a few minutes at a time. What’s going on, are you feeling okay? Sick? Is Henry okay? Is Will doing something to try and get back in your life?”

JJ shifted uncomfortably “Look, I made a rather stupid decision while drunk and out with college friends, it’s easily fixable, I just need to get back to Quantico, it’s all good.”

Hotch raised his eyebrows “You’re being evasive.”

JJ groaned, she now knew they were worried about her, but she’d really rather not talk about her idiotic drunk piercing gone wrong, with her coworkers, but more importantly the people she looked at like a family. Somehow she was already getting the feeling that she wouldn’t be able to convince them to back off… fuck.

“I’m allowed to be evasive. I’m not an unsub you’re interrogating.”

Rossi spoke up “No, but you are practically like a daughter to me and we’re all worried about you, it’s not like you.”

“You guys aren;t going to let this go are you?”

Reid spoke up “We’re not trying to be invasive, we’re just worried about you.”

JJ snorted “Yeah, you’re failing at not being invasive, I swear you can’t hide anything when you work with profilers good lord.”

Emily gestured to her “So?”

“Urgh. Igotdrunkandgotapiercingandit’sinfectedandineedtogobacktogetitremoved.”

She rushed the statement out as fast as possible and the team blinked at her and Derek said “uh what?”

JJ blushed heavily and looked at the floor before mumbling slowly enough to be understood “I got drunk and got a piercing and it got infected so it’s uncomfortable to sit and I need to go back and get it removed but I couldn’t until we got back to Quantico.”

She nearly vomited as she waited for someone to react, but they were all silent as they processed what she said but Emily spoke first “You seriously thought we we judge you for that?”

JJ shrugged but didn’t look up “No I just, I feel like I have to be so perfect and serious all the time at work and at home now and I can’t relax so this was going to be like a fun little secret type thing that only I knew about.”

Emily stood up and gave her friend a hug, “Aww, your cute, like we can have any privacy in this dorked up family of ours. I have to ask though, why can’t you just take it out yourself?”

“I’m too worried I would accidentally restab myself with it or make it worse or something, and it’s kind of hard to reach for me because I have short arms.”

The team looked kind of confused at that but Emily gaped, figuring out her secret first. She grabbed the blonde’s arm and tugged her to the other side of the plane as everyone watched confusedly. She motioned to Spencer who was sitting on the couch “Up, go sit over there for a minute.”

“Um what? Okayyy?”

Spencer got up and took the seat Emily had been sitting with and Emily rifled through the cabinet pulling out a thick purple blanket and attaching it to a couple hooks on the wall. They had the blanket and hooks when Spencer was having a particularly bad migraine, it blocked the windows and lights near the couch, but also conveniently blocked the line of sight of all the other agents at the front half of the plane. She pushed JJ behind it before following her without a glance back to the other agents. If she had she would have noticed them exchanging odd looks but shrugging accepting it.

They heard Emily’s low hiss at JJ, not intended for them, but the blanket only dampened sounds, not totally blocked them out. “Seriously Jay, you’ve heard all kinds of stories from my teenage years but you couldn’t come to me, or any of the team about this. An infection from a piercing is a big deal, believe me, I’ve had more than one from not taking care of them as a teenager. I’m not saying this one’s your fault but are you trying to fuck youself up permanently?”

“How’d you know where it was?”

“Like I said, been there done that, though I took it out a year later and let it close.”

JJ whispered something they couldn’t hear but could assume based on Emily’s answer “Why’d I drag you back here? Seriously? I’m going to take it out for you, even a few more hours isn’t a good thing, much less the 3 days you’ve already left it in making the infection worse. We’ve seen each other change before, now get over it and take the necessary clothes off.”

“Emily, no, I’m not letting you see it.”

“Yeah, off” Emily tapped JJ’s waistband of her skirt and at JJ’s not moving from where Emily had pushed her onto her back Emily shrugged “fine I’ll take care of it then.”

She hooked her fingers on the waistband and slid them off gently as JJ averted her eyes quickly.

“Em…”

“Jay…”

“Please don’t.”

“Look, move past the embarrassment and realize I’m helping you because I’m practically your sister and I care about you.” As she spoke, she gently pulled JJ’s underwear down, taking care not to bump what she could now see was a very red piercing gone wrong.

“Christ JJ, where did you get this done, it’s too close to the surface, it’s not an infection, your body’s rejecting it, this wasn’t done safely.”

“Could you shut up, I’d rather not have all the guys on our team listening, thanks.”

Emily rolled her eyes “Oh you know they’ve figured it out, just choose not to be embarrassed and call it a day. Seriously though, where’d you get it done?”

JJ sighed “I don’t really remember, like I said, very drunk. I do know it was kinda shady though.”

Emily sighed “Fuck, I’m going to grab something from my go bag really quick, just stay here.”

“Oh like I would move.”

Emily teasingly hit JJ’s shoulder “brat.”

Emily slipped out from behind the curtain ignoring the curious looks from her team as she rifled through her bag pulling out her bathroom/makeup bag that she knew had tweezers in it, and then grabbing JJ’s as well. She looked through both before sighing and looking at the group, “Do any of you guys have a first aid kit in your go bag, I accidentally took mine out when I washed my bag last week.”

Hotch nodded and pulled his go bag out handing her a small case. “It’s just basics but I always try to have at least something.”

EMily unclipped it and nodded “Yeah, it’ll work.”

Spencer spoke up worriedly “Is she okay?”

“Aww worried about your big sister? Yeah, she’ll be fine. It’s not an infection, it was a bad piercing and her body’s trying to reject it, as soon as it’s out she’ll be okay.”

She gave him a reassuring smile and went to the bathroom to wash her hands before slipping back to JJ and setting the bags and first aid case down. She put on gloves from the first aid case and got tweezers from her and JJ’s makeup bags and moved over to JJ and laid a hand on her shoulder “Fair warning, this is going to hurt.”

JJ sighed “Worse than it already is?”

Emily nodded grimly “On the bright side, at least you don’t have to do it to yourself, I did and it hurt like a mother.”

JJ just grimaced and let out a tiny groan so Emily said “You okay?”

JJ nodded “Just get it over with.”

Emily gave her a smile and sat down on the couch between JJ’s leg and grabbed an alcohol wipe from the kit, trying to run it over JJ’s private area that was near the piercing as gently as possible but even that made JJ moan in pain. 

“Oh fuck, okay nope, can’t handle this Em, not happening.”

Emily gritted her teeth and hissed as quietly as she could, unaware the team could just barely hear here and were seriously concerned by her statement “JJ, your skin is swelling around the piercing and trying to forcefully push the fucking thing through your skin, I guarantee that would be worse. I know how it feels, believe me, I know, but you can do it and let me get this out. This is why you don’t wait so long when you think somethings wrong, you come to the queen of irresponsibility. 9 out of 10 times I’ve done it. If you need to scream, bite your shirt, I’m sure the team’s already worried as it is.”

JJ nodded and bunched a bunch of it up in her mouth to bite down on as Emily gently touched her clit to pull as much skin away from the bar as possible. JJ whimpered but Emily grasped the screw on ball and took it off as gently as she could. She set it in an earring case JJ had, to keep it where she knew where it was and rubbed JJ’s shoulder knowing the next part was going to hurt like a bitch.

“You ready?”

“No but please just do it.” 

“Okay, huge breath in and out.”

She waited until JJ was letting the breath out before pulling the rod out quickly, wincing as the shirt did nothing to muffle JJ’s scream. She was sure the whole team had heard it and was even more worried now. She did her best to soothe JJ saying “I know, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so so sorry, it’s okay now, you’re okay.”

JJ nodded shakily and gently placed her cool hand over top of her sensitive area to try and relieve the burning. Emily nudged it away, knowing the skin was bleeding slightly, and wiped it clean, putting a cotton ball over top and putting a bandage over the cotton. She rubbed JJ’s knee “That’ll work until you get home, then take your clothes off to let it breathe a little, let it heal before you do anything though.”

JJ nodded and slid her underwear and skirt back up slowly and gently, shakily standing up as she felt echoes of the burst of pain but not as bad as it had been the past couple days. 

JJ muttered “God I am never going to be able to look at them team without blushing again” and Emily nudged her shoulder “Just move on, it’s done with, no big deal.” JJ nodded and took a deep breath before helping Emily take the blanket down and put it away. She slid back to her earlier seat as Emily sat next to her. They could all tell she was feeling awkward so Hotch simply asked “You okay?”

“Yeah, I'm good now.”

With that the team nodded and let it go, moving on to different courses of conversation. JJ appreciated it, but she knew she would still always think back on that plane ride with awkwardness and embarrassment, even if she was grateful her team-family, had helped her out.


End file.
